EXCLUSIVE: Heíll be back! James Cameron, who regains certain rights to his prized creation The Terminator in 2019, is godfathering a new iteration of the film that might finally get it right in drawing a close in the battle between humans and Skynet. Sources said that Cameron, whose copyright reversion happens 35 years after the release of the 1984 classic, is in early talks with Deadpool director and VFX wiz Tim Miller to direct a reboot and conclusion of one of cinemaís great science fiction tales. David Ellison, whose Skydance co-financed Terminator Genisys, is bankrolling an exploratory effort that includes engaging some top-flight science fiction authors to find the movie creatively. Ellison still holds many Terminator rights, after his 2013 acquisition from sister and Annapurna principal Megan Ellison. She bought them in 2011 at Cannes for $20 million.

This is the latest development in an ongoing saga. Indeed, The Terminator might have endured the craziest road of any billion dollar movie franchise, going back to when Cameron ó who only had Piranha 2 under his belt as director ó sold the rights to his scripted project for $1 to producer Gale Ann Hurd, with the stipulation he could not be fired as director. The result was a 1984 sci-fi classic, that launched his star and that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cameron came back and topped himself to write and direct he blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but he washed his hands of the property after that. He mentioned to producers Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna his plans to buy the rights back from Carolco bankruptcy. They beat him to the punch, figuring he would still participate, but Cameron responded by walking away. He didnít participate in the three films that followed, or the TV show The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The rights ended up with Pacificor, which paid $29.5 million, and Megan Ellison bought them after that company floundered. Cameron has had zero involvement since then, and has largely been silent. The exception was on the last picture, Terminator Genisys. Perhaps because his old buddy and True Lies star Schwarzenegger had returned as the title character, Cameron was generous in his assessment, reportedly saying that the Alan Taylor-directed film had reinvigorated and created a renaissance for the franchise.

Audiences disagreed and the franchise seemed out of gas when the $155 million grossed $440 million worldwide, but didnít do nearly well enough in the U.S. Perhaps Cameron was foreshadowing his own future return to the franchise. Much the way that Sony used to rush Spider-Man movies to stay ahead of a rights reversion ticking clock, it was always known that Cameron would regain clout eventually. It didnít seem that Skydance or Paramount had much interest continuing the creative track of the last film, but real creative involvement by Cameron, even if he doesnít direct, changes the whole ballgame. One only has to look at Aliens, True Lies, Titanic or Avatar to see what he is capable of creatively when he puts his mind to something.

I donít know anything more than Iíve disclosed here, including whether they reboot the whole thing or pick up from where Cameron left off after the second film. Iíve heard the hope is for Miller to direct whatever they come up with. Cameron is booked for four Avatar sequels, to shoot two at a time. No comment from any of the involved parties.

Mirage [is]...a comic about life and how life and the people closest to you just absolutely suck sometimes. It's "adult" in a very real sense, in that it deals with heavy themes that resonate more with adults, not that it's full of blood and titties or whatever.

That's pretty confusing, I remember trying to put T3 and SCC in continuity with each other since there's a few references to T3 in the SCC show and I guess Salvation can occur in everything since it's a prequel/sequel whatever way you want to look at it and I didn't even watch Genysis so I never understood if it was supposed to override the first two movies or just ignore the rest. I haven't seen any of the movies since I was a kid basically and 3 when I was a teen but I guess I should marathon them and one day make a convoluted single timeline full of retcons to make things fit. Which is fitting since T2 the sequel everyone accepts started with a retcon and changed how time travel worked in the first movie.
T1-T2-TGenysis-TSCC-TS
The sad thing is that everything after T2 finishes with a cliffhanger so no matter what this franchise never has a good end.

That's pretty confusing, I remember trying to put T3 and SCC in continuity with each other since there's a few references to T3 in the SCC show and I guess Salvation can occur in everything since it's a prequel/sequel whatever way you want to look at it and I didn't even watch Genysis so I never understood if it was supposed to override the first two movies or just ignore the rest. I haven't seen any of the movies since I was a kid basically and 3 when I was a teen but I guess I should marathon them and one day make a convoluted single timeline full of retcons to make things fit. Which is fitting since T2 the sequel everyone accepts started with a retcon and changed how time travel worked in the first movie.
T1-T2-TGenysis-TSCC-TS
The sad thing is that everything after T2 finishes with a cliffhanger so no matter what this franchise never has a good end.

Altered Timeline 3:
1984 - T-800 is destroyed, Kyle Reese dies
1985 - Sarah Connor gives birth to John Connor
1995 - T-1000 is destroyed, T-800 is destroyed.
1997 - Judgement Day does not occur
2004 - T-X is destroyed (but not before uploading information about the future into SkyNET), T-850 is destroyed. Judgement Day
2018 - A SkyNET post is destroyed (Salvation)
2029 - SkyNET loses (but now is armed with information from the T-X from 2004), sends T-800 to the 70s and a T-1000 to 1984, TechCOM sends a T-800 to the 70s

Altered Timeline 4:
197X - Sarah Connor's parents are killed by a T-800
1984 - T-800 is destroyed, T-1000 is destroyed, Kyle Reese lives, Sarah and Kyle time-travel to 2017
1997 - Judgement Day does not occur
2004 - Judgement Day does not occur
XXXX - John Connor is made into a T-3000
2017 - The T-3000 is destroyed

And... that's kind of where we're at. It all works.

Quote:

Isn't the Highlander franchise similarly confusing?

Eh, slightly... H1 and H3 happened exactly the way they appeared, except you just have to mentally retcon that no Prize was won and they aren't the last Immortals in either movie. Then they work just fine with the series and H4. H5, take it or leave it (most leave it). H2 doesn't exist, nor should it.

Altered Timeline 3:
1984 - T-800 is destroyed, Kyle Reese dies
1985 - Sarah Connor gives birth to John Connor
1995 - T-1000 is destroyed, T-800 is destroyed.
1997 - Judgement Day does not occur
2004 - T-X is destroyed (but not before uploading information about the future into SkyNET), T-850 is destroyed. Judgement Day
2018 - A SkyNET post is destroyed (Salvation)
2029 - SkyNET loses (but now is armed with information from the T-X from 2004), sends T-800 to the 70s and a T-1000 to 1984, TechCOM sends a T-800 to the 70s

Altered Timeline 4:
197X - Sarah Connor's parents are killed by a T-800
1984 - T-800 is destroyed, T-1000 is destroyed, Kyle Reese lives, Sarah and Kyle time-travel to 2017
1997 - Judgement Day does not occur
2004 - Judgement Day does not occur
XXXX - John Connor is made into a T-3000
2017 - The T-3000 is destroyed

And... that's kind of where we're at. It all works.

Eh, slightly... H1 and H3 happened exactly the way they appeared, except you just have to mentally retcon that no Prize was won and they aren't the last Immortals in either movie. Then they work just fine with the series and H4. H5, take it or leave it (most leave it). H2 doesn't exist, nor should it.

Hopefully T6 takes place after Genisys, There was that mid credit scene that showed Skynet survived.

Probably, like Genisys did with T4, it won't directly continue anything from T4 or Genisys, but it won't openly contradict them either.

I would've loved to have seen an all-out Future War movie, with Arnold, Robert Patrick, Kristanna Loken all playing human TechCOM soldiers... a Dirty Dozen-style mission to stop SkyNET. They win, but SkyNET appropriates their likeness for Terminators.

Any of the first three movies would've been a fine place to stop. T3 may have been pointless, but at least he didn't begin a new arc. Honestly, I think they would've been better off never making a sequel. It's made less since every time. I'd rather he do a remake. There's nothing else in this universe I want to see.